Ed Miliband is the best man to protect the founding principles of the British
police set out 180 years ago by the Tory Robert Peel, Labour has said.

On Tuesday, Ed Miliband invoked the legacy of Benjamin Disraeli’s “One Nation” Toryism for his party, and Labour MPs have been ordered to use the phrase as often as possible in public.

In her speech to the Labour conference on Wednesday, Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, sought to recruit another 19th Century Tory to the party's cause.

The Conservatives can no longer claim to be “the party of Peel”, she claimed.

The Tory Prime Minister who founded the British police established the principle that officers are drawn from the community and uphold the law through “consent”, she said.

But the Tory Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell’s outburst at officers in Downing Street – in which he allegedly called them “plebs” - demonstrated that the Conservatives did not value the police, Ms Cooper said.

“We expect teenagers to show respect for the police. We expect drivers in traffic to show respect for the police. It’s just not what David Cameron expects from his Cabinet,” she told delegates at the Labour conference in Manchester.

“Whatever happened to the party of Peel? People used to think the Tories backed the police and supported law and order - not any more.

“Weak on crime, weak on the causes of crime – that is David Cameron’s Conservative Party. It is the Labour Party that is now the party for policing.”

Ms Cooper urged “plebs of the world” to “unite” to overthrow the coalition at the next election.

She promised that an incoming Labour Government would abolish the Independent Police Complaints Commission and replace it with a watchdog with more powers.

She criticised the current Commission’s handling of cases including the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protest and the Hillsborough scandal.

Ms Cooper said a new Police Standards Authority should be introduced "to raise standards, pursue powerful investigations and ensure there are proper safeguards in place".

Other proposals for tackling crime would include an economic crime Act, ensuring those involved in scandals such as Libor rate fixing cannot get away "scott free", she said.

Voters will go to the polls to elect the first police and crime commissioners to take responsibility for forces across England and Wales next month.

However, the Conservatives rejected her criticism and accused her of “dishonest scaremongering about crime”.

Damian Green, the policing minister, said Ms Cooper claimed wrongly that crime had stopped falling when the latest figures showed it had reduced by 4 per cent.

He insisted that private police patrols had been “explicitly ruled out”.

“Yvette Cooper needs to stop her dishonest scaremongering about crime,” he said. “The powers of sworn officers will not be given to private contractors beyond those limited powers conferred by the last